Thanksgiving Negotiations: Part III

“I…I don’t think I can do this,” Zoe managed to get out as she stood there, wringing her hands together as she shot another nervous glance at the large kitchen door, which was the only thing protecting them from a room full of Bradford men waiting for Thanksgiving dinner.

“They have it coming,” Haley bit out with a firm nod as she reached up and pushed her glasses back up her nose with a look that she probably thought was intimidating, but really, she was just too damn adorable for words to pull off, Rebecca thought as she forced herself to focus on the problem at hand.

The weak link.

“We made a pact,” Rebecca reminded Zoe, who kept sending nervous glances back at the door that they’d been forced to barricade to keep the men from coming in here and ruining everything.

“I know,” Zoe said, licking her lips nervously as she shifted anxiously, “it just seems kind of mean.”

“They have it coming,” Necie said with a firm nod that was seconded by Charlie from where she lounged comfortably in the corner with a jelly donut and her iPad.

“Still…” Zoe said, letting the word trail off.

“I told you she’d break,” Mikey said with a heartfelt sigh and a sad shake of her head as she continued rolling the baseball between her hands, earning a glare from the teenage boy who’d been tasked with keeping her out of trouble.

“You offered to talk in exchange for someone to try your new fastball on,” Sebastian, who’d been instrumental in peeling potatoes and mixing everything they’d shoved in front of him, bit out with a glare locked on the teenage girl who’d decided that her contribution to Thanksgiving dinner should come in the form of “supervising.”

Granted, that was probably for the best, Rebecca had to admit, doing her best not to cringe at the memory of Mikey suggesting that they mix in trail mix with the stuffing. That had been followed by suggesting that they use flour in the mashed potatoes so that they could shape it into a turkey. When she suggested that they add horseradish to the butternut squash to give it an extra kick, they’d all looked to Sebastian to save them. He’d slowly exhaled as he set his peeler down so that he could drag Mikey out of the walk-in closet and set her down on the counter with a look of warning before she was able to follow through with any of her terrifying suggestions.

Blinking at her best friend, Mikey said, “You have no proof of this.”

“You used my phone to negotiate your betrayal,” Sebastian said, holding up his phone as he glared at the teenage girl doing her best to appear innocent.

“That could have been anyone,” Mikey pointed out.

Nodding slowly, Sebastian said, “I’m going to lock you in the freezer.”

“Should we be focusing on the fact that your mother is about to sell us all out?” Mikey said, absently gesturing to Zoe with her baseball and drawing everyone’s attention to the fact that the woman in question was now inching her way towards the backdoor.

When she realized that they were now all looking at her, Zoe stopped, swallowed hard, cleared her throat, and mumbled, “They’re going to kill us.”

“They have it coming,” Haley, who had been waiting a year for her revenge, bit out coldy.

“They really do,” Aunt Megan seconded that as she took the next batch of biscuits out of the oven and-

“We should make jelly out of honey and mashed potatoes,” Mikey said with a firm nod that had Aunt Megan swallowing hard as she re-thought her decision to put the biscuits down within reach of Mikey and carried the pan to the counter lining the back wall.

Kasey slowly exhaled as she reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose as she said, “Sebastian?”

With a nod of understanding, Sebastian slid his iPad into his sweatshirt pocket, picked Mikey up and threw her over his shoulder and headed for the door with Mikey snapping, “I was being helpful!”

“Maybe we should rethink this?” Zoe suggested with a hopeful smile, which earned a murderous glare from every woman in the large kitchen.

“Trust me when I tell you that they have it coming,” Kenzie assured Zoe as she put another bowl of mashed potatoes on the hot plate.

“I know,” Zoe mumbled as she went back to wringing her hands together, “it just…it just seems cruel.”

“So was touching my pumpkin pie,” Haley bit out with a glare that told them that she was past the point of no return.

*-*-*-*

“They’re up to something,” Jason said with a glare aimed at the kitchen door as the unmistakable sounds of the boxes the women used to barricade the door scraped over the floor reached them seconds before the door opened and Sebastian walked out with Mikey over his shoulder.

“Of course, they are,” Lucifer said as he glared at the door slowly swinging shut for a few more seconds before he turned his attention to the small teenage girl being dropped in a chair at the far side of the room and the teenage boy shooting her a glare in warning as he debated his next move.

For the past week, he’d been debating giving into the little bully’s demands so that he could find out what his wife and the rest of the women in his family were up to, but he wasn’t sure that it was worth the risk to the emergency room. It would only take one word and Mikey would tell him everything that he needed to know, but…

He had another plan.

His gaze flickered back to the kitchen doors as the sounds of the boxes being shoved back in front of it caught his attention and debated his next move. He could go into his office and watch the security footage of the kitchens, but knowing his wife, she’d probably already anticipated that move. 

That left Plan B.

Lucifer looked past the rest of the men sending nervous glances at the door and focused on the group of women and children in the corner, noting the way that they all tried to appear innocent as they watched them. They were definitely in on it, but then again, he’d figured that out a few hours ago when they broke out the popcorn and started making bets on which one of them would crack first.

Lucifer looked from his mother, who was watching him with an anticipatory gleam in her eyes that actually terrified him, to Jason and Trevor’s children as he debated on which one he would be able to break first.

Jonathan.

Definitely Jonathan, Lucifer decided as he raised his hand and gestured with two fingers for the teenage boy to join them. With an anticipatory gleam in his eye, Jonathan moved to do just that, only to swallow hard and sit back down when Melanie, who was heavily pregnant with her second child narrowed her eyes on the boy.

Shit!

For a moment, Lucifer considered asking Joshua, but…

He’d learned his lesson the last time.

That left…

“You know what I want,” Mikey said, startling the hell out of him as he looked down to find her suddenly standing in front of him.

Wondering how she got past Sebastian, Lucifer glanced over to the table they’d been sitting at and-

Wasn’t all that surprised to find his father slapping a piece of duct tape across his mouth while Uncle Jared and Jason finished securing him to the chair, his murderous glare never leaving the teenage girl that had fucked him over for a chance to play catch.

Lucifer debated the odds of surviving one of Mikey’s fastballs as he glanced back at the closed kitchen door where his wife the and the rest of the women were no doubt preparing to fuck them all over and realized that he didn’t have a choice.

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